Un Ballo in Maschera (Verdi)

So, a not-quite-love-triangle (Verdi has super spoiled me! I was like, where are the family relationships??) with Gustavo, the King of Sweden; his best friend and secretary Renato; and Renato's wife Amelia. (Because of Censors, Gustavo started out as Riccardo, the Governor of Boston, which is totally awesome. But both my audio and video experiences were with Sweden instead of Boston.)

(Note: D got hold of this post while I was writing it. I think I have scrubbed his comments, but if there's anything about Mr. Bennett or cosmonauts I am blaming him!)

I listened to Un Ballo in Maschera in Opera in English (which was fine -- not one of the strongest, but not the weakest either) and borrowed from RL opera friend the Salzburg 1990 production with Domingo as Gustavo, Josephine Barstow as Amelia, Leo Nucci as Renato/Anckarstrom, Florence Quivar as Ulrica, and Sumi Jo as Oscar. This one was wonderful and I am seriously thinking about buying my own copy.

My watching experience went something like this:

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